Weekend street closures: Art City Austin and more running

In all honesty, this weekend’s Downtown street closures won’t block much traffic, but you might be curious about—or event attend or participate in—the events that instigate them.

Art City Austin celebrates the city’s creative culture by hosting an annual fair that brings together more than 75 local and visiting visual artists, designers, installation artists, artisans, and makers showcasing and selling their work event.

The event is, incredibly, in its 69th year, and it’s as relevant to Austin’s identity as ever—especially with the branding of its traditional event as a “Convergence Fair” and its goal of “disrupting how our community views and engages with art.”

This year’s Art City Austin Convergence Fair takes place Saturday and Sunday at the newly delightful Republic Square Park downtown. It involves closing only one short block for those days. (There are many related events around the city—including guided tours of museums and public art, private and corporate collections, architecture, parks, and more—in the central part of town as well as slightly more remote locations such as the Charles Schwab campus near the Domain.)

The weekend’s other street closure is yet another run (which spread like oak pollen this time of year), this one the Longhorn Run: 5K and 10K races that affect primarily streets on and around the UT campus. A short stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and a long run of Speedway through North University and Hyde Park look like the only off-campus parts of the course.

Art City Austin Convergence Fair at Republic Square

Friday-Sunday, April 12-14

Road closure Thursday, April 11, noon-Sunday, April 14, midnight

Longhorn Run

Saturday, April 13, 8 a.m.-10 a.m.